I've run two marathons, so I'm an expert. The chicago marathon is coming up next week, so i'm here to help. I ran my first in 4:01 and my second in 3:43, so i decided to call it a day, as it's hard to continue with a linear rate of improvement from there. Also, my left knee's topography tends to resemble corsica after banging on the pavement for 26 miles. Anyway, I do have some simple tips that I wish somebody had written down for me before I ran my first race, so here they are:
1. The chicago race is extremely well organized and has water/gatorade stops every couple miles. Drink gatorade at every stop, don't wait until the 6 or 8 mile mark when you feel like you should start taking on fluids. If this is your first race and you are worried about finishing in some personal goal time, you will not regret loading up on fuel along the way...it will "ease" the wall you hit (but not eliminate it) at the 18-21 mile mark.
2. you will hit the wall, so plan for it, and when you hit it, appreciate that you are running through it and then forget about it. of course, you can't forget about it, because your brain is saying "stop running RIGHT NOW"....so find something else for your brain to think about. How do you do this? I tried the following in year 2 and it worked superbly. I took along a samsung yepp 128mb mp3 player last year. I replaced the lousy arm band it comes with and used an addidas sweat band instead. Also swap out the earbuds for some super lightweight but stay-in-place headphones from sony. two key points: don't turn on the mp3 player until around the 15-16 mile mark, just a couple miles before your brain is about to give you 10 good reasons to stop running for just a little while. Having the music kick in at this point gives you a jolt of adrenaline and really helped me focus on something else when my body ran out of fuel stores around 18-19 miles. My mile split times improved over the last 8 miles of the race in year 2, and i think it's because of the music and extra fuel i had been taking on earlier. Obviously, you need adrenaline-speed-make-me-want-to-run music. If you're too lazy to go find those 20 songs that get you going, just put the soundtrack to Run Lola Run on your mp3 player and go.
3. The first four-five miles of the chicago race are jam packed and people are lined up in the wrong pace slots and you run as much laterally as you do forward for a while. just anticipate this and expect it and don't freak out and try to get through the crowd faster...it's just as crowded way up there where you think you should be.....don't burn out in the early going with stress and bursts of speed around slow folks....you can work your way through the crowd over the first five miles only taking 20 seconds a mile off your pace...you should be running the first few miles more slowly anyhow to warm up.
4. expect crummy weather. wear something warm and comfortable that you hate and want to throw away to the starting line, and then marvel when the gun goes off and about 10,000 people instantaneously create the single largest salvation army donation of the year when literally thousands of sweat pants, hats, sweatshirts, etc. get thrown to the side of the track.
Posted by Dick at October 5, 2003 08:33 AM | TrackBackdick speaks the truth here. i was the ball-and-chain around his ankle the first year (we finished with the same time in 2001) and a little musical motivation in the dead miles toward the end would've gone a long, long way.
if you're even planning to run a marathon this fall, be it chicago's or elsewhere, congratulations on making the training investment that's gotten you this far! I was in considerably more pain during some of the longest final training runs than I was during the marathon. The crowd carries you more than you could ever possibly expect (at least in Chicago). Everyone wearing a race number should rightly feel like a rock star that day.
Posted by: matt at October 5, 2003 06:05 PM